Off-Camera flash

Gabby wanted grunge-I had ideas…let the collaboration begin. I spoke to my creative friend Laura Healy for location suggestions, and it seems her home town would be a perfect location. Laura got permission, and it’s off to grunge land for us. My grand-daughter has an artsy flare and always has. Below Gabby’s gallery, you’ll find my process for executing off-camera flash.

Flash power ratios unknown. Tweaked according to camera histogram. Flash heads were rotated to feather light as needed.

First camera angle testing ambient light as well as flash/fill-flash

Laura Healy, a former student of mine (UE Cont. Ed classes), met us in Norris City, IL. She had a location in mind. Laura was like a little birdie sitting on my shoulder. She saw what I missed and whispered to me. We worked like a polished team though it was our first time working together.

Collaboration: Laura spotted the angle from the next room. Alisha (Gabby’s mom) tweaked the light position on my command. She was fantastic at small movements adjusting fall-off light. Gabby moved in small increments like a pro.

Final image. Photoshop CS6: Combined HDR and LR images, masked to lower saturation and exposure everywhere except Gabby, added a warm SPOTLIGHT filter for additional depth. What a team we made!

Oh and, a senior portrait needs a graduation year, like a mailbox needs it’s home number.

Final portrait

Camera file

One final note: Try combining off-camera flash with HDR.

As was began to lose light, this scene was deep in the yard, so emplyed HDR and did some Photoshop work to capture the feel of the real.

The off-camera flash was filtered blue and a fish-eye lens adds even more drama. (Nikkor 16mm f2.8)